Re: Paraculture - tending wild resources, but not domesticating them

richardparker01@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
...
> or: http://tinyurl.com/cfxk3
...
> On the subject at had, Simoons has no truck with the idea that we avoid
> dog eating because dogs are domesticated animals in faithful service to
> their master - indeed, Simoons notes that dogs were probably
> domesticated precisely for their flesh. Moreover, other animals are
> just as domesticated, but we do eat them. And besides that basic
> intuition, Simoons has no real answer - historically, most cultures
> have thought dog to be a poor meat, but they've eaten it. Modern
> western and American cultures are almost alone in strict rejection.
...
There's one issue with eating dogs: the offal of carnivores is
potentially toxic. The Australian Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson and
one of his colleagues on an expedition to the South Magnetic Pole were
reduced to eating their dogs when their other colleague went into a
crevasse along with 1 of their sleds and most of their food (note to
adventurers: consider the old adage about eggs and baskets!) They
assumed, incorrectly, that because eating liver from cattle or sheep
was healthy, so too would be dog liver. Mawson's colleague died and
Mawson was lucky to survive back to his base camp suffering severely
from hypervitaminosis A.
There's an australopithecine or habiline fossil that shows classic
symptoms of hypervitaminosis A as well - delamination & internal
bleeding in the long bones if I'm not mistaken. Someone here will
know...
Ross Macfarlane